That’s Life! ** (1986, Jack Lemmon, Julie Andrews, Sally Kellerman) – Classic Movie Review 8850

Director Blake Edwards looks at his own life in his 1986 comedy drama That’s Life! and casts Jack Lemmon in the semi-autobiographical Edwards role of Harvey Fairchild, an affluent hypochondriac architect reaching his 60th birthday, with his sympathetic wife’s possible cancer bringing fears of mortality.

Lemmon does well, as always, and so does Julie Andrews (the real-life Mrs Edwards) as the wife Gillian Fairchild, and some scenes are touching and amusing. But overall the navel-gazing does not produce a sharp enough, or touching and amusing enough film this time.

It is a family affair: Jennifer Edwards (daughter of Blake and Julie Andrews), and Felicia Farr and Chris Lemmon (Jack Lemmon’s wife and son) appear, while the film is partly shot in the Edwards home in Malibu, California.

Also in the cast are Sally Kellerman, Robert Loggia, Rob Knepper, Matt Lattanzi, Cynthia Sikes, Jordan Christopher, Nicky Blair, Teddy Wilson, Dana Sparks and Emma Walton Hamilton.

That’s Life! is directed by Blake Edwards, runs 102 minutes, is made by Blake Edwards, Delphi V Productions, Paradise Cove Productions and Ubilam Productions, is released by Columbia Pictures (1986) (US), is written by Milton Wexler and Blake Edwards, is shot by Anthony Richmond, is produced by Tony Adams and is scored by Henry Mancini.

It was an Oscar nominee for the song ‘Life in a Looking Glass’ by Henry Mancini (music) and Leslie Bricusse (lyrics). Lemmon and Andrews were Golden Globe nominees, and so was the song. Conversely, the song was a Razzie Award nominee for Worst Original Song.

Andrews plays a singer but does not sing in the film, whose theme song is sung by Tony Bennett over the closing credits.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8850

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